250 [Senate 



We have mostly fed in our dwelling-houses and out-houses, and 

 generally on the multicaulis. 



I send you a sample of the raw silk that took the premium at the 

 Fair at Rochester, and also a sample of sewing silk made since the 

 Fair from some of the premium silk. [This raw silk is a superb ar- 

 ticle. J. R. B.] We have had a great deal to contend with, in our 

 efforts in this business:— want of experience, wrong information, pre- 

 judice and ridicule from the unbelieving multitude, whose business it 

 is to laugh at what they have not themselves the energy to attempt. 

 But the tables are now turned and turning, and we are animated to 

 see the manifestations of the change, here as well as elsewhere. 



Rev. Joseph Field, Charlemonf, Mass. — My experience in raising 

 silk commenced in 1S33. For a number of years my worms were 

 fed in rooms not adapted to good ventilation, nor for being artificially 

 warmed. Small crops were ordinarily obtained with various degrees 

 of success. Sometimes they were not shut out from the free access 

 of external air without any means of modifying it in regard to tem- 

 perature. Five or six years since, I erected a cocoonery 40 feet by 

 22, a story from the ground, extending north and south, three win- 

 dows on the east side, and as many on the west directly opposite, and 

 two with a door in the north end, a door at the other end opening 

 into another apartment somewhat open and capable of being filled 

 with breezes from the west. In this room prepared with shelves 

 running from one end to the other, and the walls made tight by plas- 

 ter, my worms have been reared, for several years, with little use of 

 artificial heat. My daughters who had the care of feeding the 

 worms, became convinced by a gradually increased use of the stove, 

 that such an article was very important in an expeditious and success- 

 ful raising of cocoons. Accordingly, the present year, we introduced 

 a stove, by which any degree of temperature could be raised and 

 maintained, and care was taken to keep it up as high as eighty, and 

 not unfrequently rising to a hundred. The effect of it upon the 

 worms was evidently most salutary. They were always lively and 

 in an eating mood. Their growth was rapid and unobstructed, and 

 in four weeks at most their shelves were beautifully decorated with 

 their cocoons. Never before did they appear so large and healthy 

 at the end of their several ages. At the winding period, however, a 

 portion of them died, in consequence, it is supposed, of not being so 

 promptly and fully fed, and supplied with eligible materials for the 

 reception of their cocoons as was requisite. The heat of the room 

 brought them forward so fast, that the hands employed could not 

 supply all their wants as quickly as their well-being required ; for 

 they evidently love despatch as well as those who tend upon them. 

 The experience of the season seems to us to warrant the conclusion, 

 that it is not excessive heat that injures the worm in any case, while 

 cold is not a little injurious by checking activity and leading to a 

 Jingering death. Those worms which occupied the hottest part of 



